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Ancestral use of magic mushrooms

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Adivino

Adivino

Rising Star
I want to read about the ancestral use of the mushrooms, and how the natives did their rituals. I want to know at what time of the day they ingested, if they ate before or not. If they ate, what, and what foods where prohibited. Did they abstain from sex?

I want to learn from ancestral knowledge to have better trips, minimizing potential headaches originating from food interactions. An obvious one being cheese.

Is there any book or report detailing their rituals?
 
Terence McKenna, 'Food of the Gods'.

Not so much detailed rituals (as that is impossible to know), but a well argued hypothesis, and concise documentation (of what we DO know) of mushroom and drug history and culture. Big emphasis on the mushrooms.

Also reads wonderfully :)
 
Yea was gonna say that if you were looking for rituals, you'd be better learning about still-practicing mushroom tribes rather than ancestral ones...

good call Jamie, gonna give that a listen myself :)
 
to be honest I dont know why there is so little data out there on mushroom ceremonies and mushroom curranderos/healing etc..compared to ayahuasca. Ayahuasca has been so hyped up and even san pedro and often people actaully look down at mushrooms as some lesser medicine or even just some recreational drug.

I dont know why that is. Mushrooms have given me as much as ayahuasca has, and I bet if all the people who spend time in peru went to huatla and did some ceremonies they might feel the same way.

The only documentary I know of on mushroom ceremonies in huatla is "the secret life of mushrooms" and I can not even rent it to watch on amazon.com because I am in canada and not the US..at the same there are countless ayahuasca documentaries and interviews books etc..

Kinda sucks how so many people have just overlooked mushrooms. I dont understand it. Mushrooms and ayahuasca are my 2 favorite medicines hands down and I dont think one is better than the other.

This is actaully kind of sad because at this point I think it is safe to say that we know far more about ayahuasca traditions that we actaully do about those of the mushrooms. If I had the money etc I would like to spend an extended time in huatla working with a mushroom currandero and living in that world apprenticing to learn as much as I can about the traditions of the mushrooms..I often feel like I would actaully rather do that than be down in the amazon with ayahuasca. Mushrooms have given me and so many others so much and I feel like we owe them something and bringing a context back to the west for their use the way others have done with ayahuasca would be great.
 
Jamie, it's not fair, you're right.
For the records, I decided and manage to quit cigarets after a Psilocybe semilanceata, aka liberty caps, wild and freshly picked mushroom journey.
It was so difficult at times that I've been feeling really awkward for one or two weeks, down, a little depressed, but it was prolly all the energy being reajusted, the toxic material coming out, cause I start tu understand that I had to change some pattern in my life, an once I started I felt so much freedom and happiness in my life.
A few month after that I was introduced to salvia divinorum and I start to really see there is something fascinating about psychedelic and some real healing going on. Just not the fancy and cool visual some poeple advertise with acid or cubes.

I'd say look into Maria Sabina too. She was quite famous mazatec curandera working with psilocybe mexicana and salvia. The ceremonies were hold by night, drums would be played and singing, clapping hands, until the sunrise sometimes, and I believe under a tent of some sort, a bit like sweat lodge are being hold.
 
Terrence Mckenna said that the way to do mushrooms is to take 5 grams by yourself in total darkness and silence on an empty stomach.

And that's how I do it.

Let me tell you... 5 grams will take you as far as ayahuasca or DMT.

But mushrooms are far more gentle, and easy on the body.

You will hear the "logos";

A voice inside your head you know, it's not your own but speaks your same lenguage!!

For a moment you will understand everything about everything. The whole universe and how it works and where it's going.

But you can only bring back a fraction of that knowledge :-(

Finally.

You will change forever;

Your boundaries will disappear, your'll overcome your fears, and you'll see your life on a whole different positive way.
 
Mushrooms were my first psychedelic. I retired them for a while, and then picked them back up this spring. I forgot how in love with their spirit I am.

Look for books by Wasson on the Maxatec (Maria Sabina) as others have said. I cant remember the title, but I read one that had a good bit of info on ritual. Still certainly not a "how to guide" though.
 
Sounds stupid, but on the History Channel's special The Stoned Ages, there's some talk about Mayan use of mushrooms including a life-threatning ball game (loser dies) that may have been played while on mushrooms.
 
As has been mentioned, the Mazatec still use mushrooms, and their practises are likely ancient and little changed over many years. When mushrooms are ingested it tends to be at night in the inner most chamber of the house, the pitch blackness makes the best canvas for the visions. So both the Mazatec setting and Terrence McKenna's recommended setting both have this silent darkness aspect in common.

I've heard the Aztecs ingested their mushrooms alongside lots of cocoa. I can't see this being a bad combination with all the alkaloids in chocolate, and if enough is ingested it may well modulate the experience.

Something that may be a little over looked in my opinion is what species one chooses to work with. I don't think Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms are very popular or widely used among the Mazatec (some shamans such as Maria Sabina refused to work with them), this may simply be due to them being introduced to that part of the world and growing on dung, but they tend to be considered as tourist fodder I think. One of the species reportedly used by the Aztecs and preferred by Mazatecs including Maria Sabina is the species Psilocybe mexicana. The Mazatec ingest their mushrooms in pairs. I have no personal experience of this species (yet) but from my experiences of a few species so far it seems clear to me they all have their own characters. Another thing I remember reading as that Maria Sabina and other Mazatec healers would first bless the mushrooms in copal smoke prior to ingestion on an alter, and would ingest the mushrooms gradually, as oppose to chomping them down quickly, which may ease one's system into the experience and extend it somewhat. Mixing different species was also not advised, due to increased possibility of an adverse reaction.
 
Bancopuma said:
As has been mentioned, the Mazatec still use mushrooms, and their practises are likely ancient and little changed over many years. When mushrooms are ingested it tends to be at night in the inner most chamber of the house, the pitch blackness makes the best canvas for the visions. So both the Mazatec setting and Terrence McKenna's recommended setting both have this silent darkness aspect in common.

I've heard the Mayans ingested their mushrooms alongside lots of cocoa. I can't see this being a bad combination with all the alkaloids in chocolate, and if enough is ingested it may well modulate the experience.

Something that may be a little over looked in my opinion is what species one chooses to work with. I don't think cubensis mushrooms are very popular or widely use among the Mazatec, this may simply be due to them being introduced to that part of the world and growing on dung, but they tend to be considered as tourist fodder I think. One of the species reportedly used by the Aztecs and preferred by Mazatecs including the late Maria Sabina is the species Psilocybe mexicana. The Mazatec ingest their mushrooms in pairs. I have no personal experience of this species (yet) but from my experiences of a few species so far it seems clear to me they all have their own characters. Another thing I remember reading as that Maria Sabina would ingest the mushrooms gradually, as oppose to chomping them down quickly, which may ease one's system into the experience and extend it somewhat.
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Great idea about the cocoa... i recently have started to eat raw cocoa nibs as a supplement, so far i really like the effects. def gonna try to combine this with some shrooms soon.
 
according to Kathlene Harrison the mazatecs she works with also use cinnamon tea the following day after a mushroom cermeonoy for its "warming" effects or something like that..even though cinnamon is not native to that region..

I think the mazatecs also use cacao in the following days..I never heard of them using it in ceremony though. They do offer the beans on the alter from what I understand durring mushroom and salvia ceremonies.

They also use a mixture of garlic and tobacco..they call one of the tobaccos "san pedro"..and they have another type that is female..anyway they mix garlic ang tobacco into a paste and put it on the alter and sometimes they pit a little bit in their gums durring a mushroom ceremony to help charge the visions and carry their prayers out through the spirit world.

The cubensis mushrooms they use when they have some sort of a job to do..like if they are building a new house etc..they will then do a ceremony with them. At least that is what the family that Kat Harrison works with told her.
 
"cocoa" came about because the english could not properly pronounce cacao properly for whatever reason..often today the term cocoa is used to describe the cooked cacao powder that has the oils removed. Origionally they were the same thing just one was mispronounced :)..but yeah cacao is what what you want. I dislike cocoa powder. When the stuff is cooked like that and the oils seperated it feels speedier for me and makes me nauseated. The mayans do lightly roast the cacao beans..but they dont seperate them from the oils into a dry powder etc.
 
I think it was the Aztecs who ingested their mushrooms with cocao, I think with or in a cocao broth; this is not practiced today by the Mazatec as far as I'm aware. The former I believe was considered the flesh of the Gods (I think by the Aztecs though), the latter the food of the Gods. Another ritual thing the Mazatec do is to pass the mushrooms through burning copal smoke to cleanse them before ingesting...I really like the smell. Interesting about the cubensis jamie, I hadn't heard that.
 
Bancopuma said:
As has been mentioned, the Mazatec still use mushrooms, and their practises are likely ancient and little changed over many years. When mushrooms are ingested it tends to be at night in the inner most chamber of the house, the pitch blackness makes the best canvas for the visions. So both the Mazatec setting and Terrence McKenna's recommended setting both have this silent darkness aspect in common.
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Perhaps I speak out of line, but it's odd to me that both the Mazatec and Terence seemed to prefer a setting of silent darkness.

I'm definately a mushroom tripper. For whatever reason, psilocybin does to me what a reality smashing DMT trip does for someone else, at exceedingly lower and lower doses (hell, I broke through on 3g last time... how can that happen?). However, I never, EVER trip in silent darkness.

Call me a pussy, but that setting to me is a recipe for a bad trip (then again I'm a skittish sort of person). I almost always have some ambient background music on or an iTunes visualizer or something. Then, at some point in the trip, I just phase out into hyperspace. It's typically not a big deal when it happens, and I actually rarely notice it happened until I'm back, but almost any other approach doesn't do it for me. Any smokable psychedelic (DMT or Salvia) just sort of puts me into a highly confused state of mind. I'm aware stuff is happening, but I'm not sure how to interpret it. Shrooms are different for me, from the time I take them until the time I'm off of them I just have a sort of overall feeling of safety and security, like I'm being guided by someone or something.

I dunno I guess I just wanted to add that. I post a lot around here and shrooms are my go-to psychedelic, yet I'm aware that this is the 'DMT-Nexus' and most of our members receive their insights via the direct DMT approach. That has never worked for me well, only the slow revelation via psilocybin has ever given me a proper insight into my view of the world.

So I guess perhaps to each their own? Maybe certain psychedelic plants developed a type of affinity for the area and peoples they grew amoungst. I've had a direct revelation on mushrooms that psilocybin and cannabis (my other favorite drug) made a pact before I was born to 'not let this one lose his sense of humor'.

Maybe I was a Mazatec in a previous life? Or, hell, even Terence McKenna ;)


/derail off. Sorry.
 
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